Ask Governor Perry

According to an article in The New York Times by Manny Fernandez and
Daniel C adis (1): "Standing on a stage surrounded by more than 30,000
Christians on Saturday morning, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas called on Jesus Christ
to bless and guide the nation's military and political leaders and 'those who
cannot see the light in the midst of all the darkness,' in a brief but rousing
sermon-style spiritual address at the controversial prayer rally that he
sponsored at the same time that he is weighing whether to run for president.
'Lord, you are the source of every good thing,' Mr. Perry said, as he bowed his
head, closed his eyes and leaned into a microphone at Reliant Stadium.

'You are our only hope and we stand before you today in awe of
your power and in gratitude for your blessings, and humility for our sins.
Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in
the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government, and as a nation we
have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us and for that we cry
out for your forgiveness. . . .Like all of you, I love this country deeply,' he
told the crowd. 'Thank you all for being here. Indeed, the only thing that you
love more is the living Christ.' "

Fascinating stuff, but boy does it raise a lot of follow-up
questions. I have listed a few of them here.

2. But gosh, in reference to the first question, since you are not
ordained but known widely in Texas as a "preacher," is the title
"Reverend" inappropriate in any case? So when you are doing what you
did on Aug. 6 in Houston, should it be "preacher," or possibly just
"preach?"

3. Tell me, Gov., or Rev. or preacher, or whatever, just what kind
of Christian are you? Pro-choice, anti-choice (and there are both among
Christians, as you well know [but of course many of your followers don't or
don't seem to]), anti-death penalty (like the recently deceased, Catholic,
former Governor of New York, Hugh Carey) or pro-, believer in the trinity or
not, believer in the necessity of baptism or not, believer in the rapture in
which, apparently, only certain kinds of Christians will be "saved"
while the rest, and certainly the rest of us who are not Christians of any
kind, will dammed to hell for all eternity?

4. Since you are a Methodist, just where do stand on ballroom
dancing, including the Texas Two-Step?

5. When you say "Lord, you are the source of every good
thing," just which Lord are you talking about? Is that the Christian Lord
(and if so, given the characteristics the vast number of Christian
denominations give to him/her/it there seem to be a bunch of them) the Jewish
one (and there are a few different denominations of Jews too, with rather
different concepts of God), or Muslim (and as I am sure you know, Islam has
three major denominations, Sunni, Shiite and Sufi). If one wants to believe
you, they do have to know just which God you are talking about, don't they?

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6. And while we are on that subject, what about that religion, one
of the largest in the world, Hinduism --- you may have heard of it --- that
believes that there are multiple Gods up there, or wherever. And who knows,
could the Gods not be Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon, et al, or the Aztec, Inca, or
Egyptian equivalent of same? Might not the question be, "Gods, you
are the source of every good thing?" Of course, since no believers,
whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or what have you have ever been able
to prove, other than always eventually falling back on "faith," that
one or more God or Gods exist, as far as I as a Secular Humanist Jew am
concerned there is/are none anyway. But that's another story.

7. Then there is the matter of: "You are our only hope and we
stand before you today in awe of your power and in gratitude for your
blessings, and humility for our sins." A) If "God" (however you
might define him, her, it, or them) is (are) our only hope and has power in
front of which we should stand in awe, that doesn't give us much hope, does it.
After all, last April you led Texas in a three-day-long prayer for rain and
rain didn't come. Man, that must have been disappointing. But I guess your
approach would be "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again,"
no? B) How do you define "sin," and if your definition is different
from mine, or even from that of another self-identified Christian, how do you
go about reconciling them?

8. That last question is real important, Gov./Rev./preach. In the
16th and 17th centuries Christians in Europe killed each by the
hundreds of thousands over disagreements on the matter and related subjects of
religious doctrine (and did so in the Near East in the 3rd and 4th centuries
C.E. over something that you may or may not have heard of called the
"Arian Controversy"). Boy, I dunno. You do seem to be one of those
"Christian Nation" types (see the next question). How do we know that
under that doctrine, were it take over, let's say, the US Constitutional
government, that Christians of various types would not eventually be warring on
each other over such matters, just as they did back then? Things could get very
messy, don't you think?

9. One of your supporting Revs. (blocking on his name right now),
has said that the First Amendment to the Constitution (and I assume that,
unlike Michele Bachmann who seems not to have, you have actually read it),
applies only to Christians. What is your position on that unique (at least I've
never heard that one before, but I must admit that I do not attend the church
or churches in which it is proclaimed) Constitutional interpretation?

10. And the what about another one of your dear old supporters,
the Rev. Hagee, who holds that the holocaust was God's way of forcing the Jews
out of Europe to Palestine, to prepare the way to Armageddon and the rapture
(which, unfortunately would not benefit any of them), and that the murders of
the six million by the Nazis and their allies which just an unfortunate
by-product of that policy? Oh yes, he also considers Catholics to be less than
dirt. Do you think that the word "Christian" subsumes the
"Catholic?" And while we're on this subject of who is a Christian and
who isn't, some (right-wing) evangelical Christians like yourself consider
Mormonism to be a cult. Especially since two of your potential rivals for the
GOP Presidential nomination (to say nothing of the present Senate Majority
Leader) are Mormons, where do you stand on that one?

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11. Finally, Rev./Gov./what have you, in 1996 there was a book
published entitled The New Americanism: A Political History of American
Fascism, 2001-2022. (If you might be interested, Gov., you can find it on
Amazon and archived at www.tpjmagazine.us .) In it
(chap. 10), a fictional President named Jefferson Davis Hague, gave his Second
Inaugural Address, from the National Cathedral on Washington, DC, on Dec. 25,
2008. He came from a combined religious/political background much like yours. I
wonder what you would think of the opening paragraphs of his address (the
whole, very lengthy address was based on the published thinking of many
right-wing Christians speaking and writing in the early 1990s. As Casey Stengel
often said, "you could look them up.")

"My fellow Americans under God. I stand here before you on
the birthday of our lord Jesus Christ, anticipating in all humility the
opportunity you have so graciously given me to continue to do His bidding as
your President. And I can tell you that his bidding now is to continue to fight
the good fight, for the Lord, and for you the American people under God.

"In fighting this fight, to the best of my ability, blessed
by both our lord Jesus Christ and you, the American people under God, I am both
pleased and privileged to be able to announce today the first step we of the
second Hague administration have taken to do just that. We have converted our
nation's leading political party, the Republican-Christian Alliance, the party
of God-fearing people that has put you in complete control of the government
here in Washington, into a brand-new entity.

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, MS, is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at the School of Medicine, Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books on health policy, health and wellness, and sports and regular exercise. In (more...)